Happy Wednesday! Today's slate is split, which means plenty of baseball all day long! If you are playing the early slate, make sure to catch the MLB DFS DraftKings preview show to get a breakdown before setting those lineups. Today’s playbook will be focused on this evening’s slate to help us build some winning MLB DFS lineups throughout the day!

 

 

 

The slate this evening will be a 7-game main slate on both DraftKings and FanDuel starting at 6:40 PM ET. 

There are plenty of exciting matchups to get dialed in on and different ways to construct your lineups, so let’s jump right into today’s playbook and some of my favorite MLB DFS picks for the day!

MLB DFS Picks & Daily Fantasy Playbook Today, May 8

MLB Weather Today, 5/8

Some light rain this afternoon, but it doesn’t look like anything to be concerned about.  

MLB DFS Lineup Construction Thoughts

Many of the top pitchers of the day, like Sonny Gray, Dylan Cease, Tanner Bibee, and Aaron Nola, are all on the early slate, but there are still some intriguing arms for us to look at for this evening. I am likely living on the higher end of pitching today, but there are some intriguing options. 

Outside of my favorites written up below, I also want to give honorable mentions to Chris Paddack, Jordan Hicks, and Carlos Rodon as decent options if you need to find some cheaper options to plug into your lineups today, with my favorite of that trio being Chris Paddack. 

On the offensive side, some of my favorite lineups to target today include the New York Yankees, San Francisco Giants, Tampa Bay Rays, Arizona Diamondbacks, and the Baltimore Orioles. 

 

 

 

Recommended MLB DFS Starting Pitchers

Top Options For Strikeouts

Best Odds For A Win

 

 

 

Core MLB DFS Pitchers

George Kirby, Seattle Mariners 

George Kirby’s strikeouts fell in his last outing back down to 3 after his 12-strikeout gem against the Arizona Diamondbacks, but 6 innings giving up only 1 run off 4 hits against the Houston Astros still wasn’t a bad outing. 

I think we see the strikeouts come back in this spot against the Minnesota Twins (albeit probably not to 12, but at least 6 seems highly likely). George Kirby is easily one of the best pitchers in all of baseball and does have a high ceiling along with his ridiculously high floor as a pitcher at this price.

Chris Sale, Atlanta Braves

Chris Sale doesn’t quite have the floor of quality that George Kirby has, but the upside is certainly there, and he has been looking excellent this season. He has at least 6 strikeouts in every outing this season, along with a sub-1 WHIP as he heads into his first start against his former team.

He has a 29% strikeout rate, and the Boston Red Sox have a league-leading 29.5% strikeout rate. This combination should lead to a ton of strikeouts today. The Red Sox offense still packs some punch as well, but I think Chris Sale will win this one and pile up a ton of strikeouts against his old team. 

Kyle Bradish, Baltimore Orioles

Kyle Bradish is back! He looked solid in his first outing, getting 5 strikeouts through 4.1 innings against the Yankees and giving up only one run. He should be able to go farther today as he continues to get stretched out. Don’t forget that Kyle Bradish was one of the best pitchers in baseball last season. 

The Washington Nationals don’t strikeout a ton (though more than they used to), but they are not a scary offense at all, and this should be a great spot for Bradish to ramp up and get enough innings to qualify for the win as well as putting up a fair number of strikeouts.

Aaron Civale, Tampa Bay Rays

Listen, I get it. It has now been 3 rough starts in a row for Aaron Civale. If you want to sit this one out and wait to see him get through a strong outing, I get it, but I am sticking with him and think he will bounce back today. In each of his poor outings it has really just been that last inning that has killed him. He gets to a two-strike count and then can’t get the put away pitch, he throws a few noncompetitive balls and then has to attack the strike zone and is getting hit.

Even with one of his poor outings being against the White Sox, I still trust Civale to bounce back in this spot against them. I think we get back to the 6+ strikeouts with a quality start, which he gave us in 3 of his first 4 starts. 

 

 

 

Recommended MLB DFS Hitters

Highest Expected Run Totals 

Core MLB DFS Hitters

*Note: Will Be Updated As Official Starting Lineups Are Released

Anthony Rizzo, 1B New York Yankees

The Yankees are easily one of my favorite lineups to target today getting to face Spencer Arrighetti. Arrighetti has been better than his 8.27 ERA suggests, but he still isn’t someone I trust against this Yankee lineup in New York.

Anthony Rizzo is also on a great stretch right now. He has a 1.084 OPS over his last 13 games, along with 5 homers. Even if the uptick in homers doesn’t continue, if he continues to have productive at-bats in the middle of this lineup, it should come with plenty of runs and RBIs and great value with his price. 

Isaac Paredes, 3B Tampa Bay Rays

The Tampa Bay offense is finally starting to figure out how to score some runs again. We always knew they wouldn’t be as bad as they had been all season. Isaac Paredes has been great all season, though, and if that offense is beginning to click more, he is a great option at third base, especially in a matchup like this against Chris Flexen.

Isaac Paredes already has 8 homers this season and is slashing .299/.384/.520. Over his last 20 games, that is up to .342/.425/.539, with 10 multi-hit games over that stretch. 

Jeremy Pena, SS Houston Astros

Jeremy Pena has a .936 OPS against lefties this season. Sure, it's a small sample, but that isn’t too far off his career mark of .838. Carlos Rodon has been fine this season but not great. He is coming off his worst start of the season, giving up 6 earned runs in 4 innings with 3 homers against the Baltimore Orioles.

Even if you believe in Carlos Rodon’s talent and don’t want to stack Astros, Jeremy Pena in this matchup is worth looking at putting into your SS spot as a one-off play. 

Randy Arozarena, OF Tampa Bay Rays

At first glance, you might think, “Paying over 5K for someone hitting .152, that’s insane”, but Randy Arozarena has always gone through extreme cold streaks and hot streaks. When he isn’t hitting well, he starts to chase and looks bad. 

He had one of his worst cold streaks to start the season, but he has now hit 3 homers in his last 5 games (2 steals as well), and when Randy starts heating up, you want to be on that train because he can be one of the best hitters in baseball. 

 

 

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